Aguas Argentinas, according to its own figures, enjoys a profit margin of between 15 and 25 percent each year. Other economists cited by the Inter-American Development Bank put the profit rate much higher—as high as 40 percent. [Santoro, 2/6/2003] According to Daniel Azpiazu, a researcher at the Latin American Faculty for Social Sciences, this rate of profit is far above the industry average. “In the United States, for example, water companies earned between 6-12.5 percent profits in 1991,” Azpiazu says. “In the United Kingdom a reasonable rate of profit for the sector is between 6-7 percent. In France, 6 percent is considered a very reasonable return on investment.” [CorpWatch, 2/26/2004]

Aguas Argentinas, a consortium of North American and European private water companies, announces an $800 water and sewer connection fee. The new fee is met with large scale protests, and thousands of demonstrators block the roads leading to the city (see April 1996). [Santoro, 2/6/2003; Public Citizen, 6/14/2007]

In the midst of a massive financial collapse, the private water company Aguas Argentinas—struggling to pay its external debts—insists that Argentina either implement a fixed peso-dollar exchange rate for its debt payments or allow it to increase water rates by 42 percent. When the Argentine government refuses, Aguas Argentinas threatens to take the country to the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes. The ICSID is part of the World Bank, which owns a five percent stake in the company (see (Early 1994)). Argentina attempts to block Aguas Argentinas from going to the ICSID, but France, where the consortium is based, acts to permit it. [Santoro, 2/6/2003; Public Citizen, 6/14/2007]

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